Obituary

His story was Bellmore's story

Roy Weinman, business owner and lifelong village resident, dies at 92

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Roy Weinman was born in a house on Fredricks Street in Bellmore. Since then, his wife, Myrna, said, his story has paralleled the history of the community.

From his family business, Weinman’s Hardware, which was founded before he was born, to his involvement in the Bellmore Chamber of Commerce and the Lion’s Club, Weinman contributed to Bellmore throughout the course of his life.

“There are certain members of the community [who] are indentified with the community,” said David Weiss, a local attorney and a close friend of Weinman’s. “Their passing is losing a bit of history. There aren’t too many guys left who have been here forever.”

Weinman died on July 11 of congestive heart and kidney failure brought on by his diabetes. He was 92.

His father, Meyer Weinman, opened Weinman’s Hardware, on Bedford Avenue, in 1922, and, two years later, Roy was born. He attended Winthrop Avenue Elementary School and Mepham High School, where he graduated in 1941, a member of the first graduating class to spend four years there.

He attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, studying business and economics before he enlisted in the U.S. Army in November 1942 during World War II. “He felt that this was his patriotic duty to join, to defend his country,” Myrna said. Roy served with the Army Corps of Engineers in Belgium before he was transferred to the Philippines when the war ended in Europe.

When he returned to the States, he finished his education at the University of Pennsylvania, with help from the first G.I. Bill. Soon afterward, he came back to Bellmore to join the family business. Meyer turned ownership of Weinman’s over to his son when his health declined in his old age.

“You were his friend when you went to his business,” Weiss said, adding that Weinman built products himself that the store didn’t have in stock to ensure that his customers would be satisfied.

Gary Hudes, a friend of Weinman’s, a local business owner and a former Town of Hempstead councilman, agreed with Weiss. Weinman “had a mechanical mind and loved helping people,” Hudes said, adding that customers could come to his store with the most intricate hardware dilemmas, and Weinman “would find a whatchamacallit and a whoziwhatzit and put it together, and it would work.”

Weinman had been a member of the Bellmore Lions Club since 1984 and its vice president since 2007. He was the organization’s oldest member, according to President Nin Lanci, and started its flea market. The bi-weekly fundraising event will now be run by its new ambassador, Rich Rolando, a friend of Weinman’s and a fellow club member.

“Not too many people could live a life that they really want to live,” Rolando said of his friend. “But Roy did that.”

“He was always around, helping people and just being Roy,” Myrna said.

Meyer Weinman was one of the founding members of the Chamber of Commerce, and Roy was an active member. He also served on the Army’s local draft board during the Vietnam War, and was president of the Bellmore Library’s board of trustees in the 1960s. He contributed to the library’s expansion project in 1967, and was been honored with a plaque that still hangs in the lobby.

Weinman is survived by his wife; his son Michael; his daughter Beth and her husband, Csaba Toth; his son David; his daughter Gail and her husband, Sean Diaz; and a granddaughter, Valerie. He was predeceased by his sisters Marilyn Sherman and Alice Birnbaum.

Weinman managed Weinman’s Hardware from the late 1950s until it closed its doors on Sept. 15, 2014. In his honor, Nassau County has recognized Sept. 15 as Roy Weinman Day.

After he retired, he visited Washington, D.C., with the Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit that takes veterans on tours of national war memorials. “He was really excited about that,” Myrna said. “They treated him like royalty.”